"Pelican" may be the worst-reviewed NBA phrase since "I'm taking my talents to South Beach."

I'm trying to like it, but it's hard. I picture a clunky fowl with a long beak and fat chin, sort of like Larry Bird circa 1993. But nicknames are like art — their beauty or crudity is in the eyes of the season-ticket holder.

Give owner Tom Benson credit for not opting for the "New Orleans Hurricanes." Though in this name game, even indulging local sensitivities can get you in trouble.

The Washington Bullets didn't like the gun-culture connection and became the Wizards. A few days later, the head of the local NAACP said the new nickname was too closely associated with the Ku Klux Klan.

And then there is baseball's Tampa Bay franchise, which for its first lost decade was known as the Devil Rays. They would have been the Sting Rays, but a Hawaiian Winter League team had trademarked the name.

Tampa Bay owner Vince Naimoli had no problem giving Wilson Alvarez $35 million, but he was too cheap to pay $35,000 for the rights to Sting Rays.

Thus the Devil Rays were born, prompting fringe religious groups to say the team was satanic and cursed. We all laughed until it turned out the team really was cursed, if not satanic. New owners arrived, changed the nickname to "Rays" and the team immediately made the World Series.

You know who else changed names? The New York Highlanders. If Twitter had been around in 1913, there probably would have been a backlash when the team switched to "Yankees."

Such things are always a jolt, like your favorite child coming home and saying he or she has changed his or her name. Or your favorite pop star.

Remember when Prince changed his name to that symbol thing? Then he became "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince." It was weird, but audiences adapted.

When the Beatles were first introduced, people thought of insects. And what exactly is a Pink Floyd?

It made less sense than Cleveland Browns. But names tend to take on lives and definitions of their own, totally separate from either pink or Floyd or Brown.

You do know the NFL nickname is not a color, right? The team is named after coach/patriarch Paul Brown. Imagine the fun we'd have had over the years if former San Francisco 49ers coach Red Hickey helped found the team.

The point here is that as the years pass, New Orleans Pelicans will roll off the tongue as easily as Utah Jazz or Miami Heat or Pink Floyd.

And as upset as Hornets/Pelicans fans may be with Benson, imagine what the nickname might be if the team were owned by Naimoli.